We bring to you here Vol 6, Issue 4 of our flagship publication, the Zimbabwe Briefing, from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition’s Johannesburg based Regional Information & Advocacy hub. This edition comes a few days after the Parliament of Zimbabwe announced the resumption of Public Hearings on the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill No2. Promptly, the Coalition released a statement calling on the Parliament of Zimbabwe to suspend the hearings. It came as a shock that parlia

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa on May 21, 2020 announced that the Covid-19 lockdown is now indefinite, in many ways maintaining a ban on any public gathering. However, two weeks later, the government of Zimbabwe has called for Public Hearings on the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill No.2 further heightening tensions in the Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe adopted a compromise new Constitution in May 2013, at the twilight of the inclusive government that was formed in 2009 after the

The ruling ZANU-PF party seeks to cancel, through amendments, key concessions made during the negotiated 2013 constitutional reform process. The proposals to empower the President in the appointment of key executive, judicial and other independent officers, blandished with token advancements in women and youth representation, raise issues of effective mechanisms to ensure sustainability of negotiated constitutional outcomes in the face of resurgent dominant majorities. On 31

Introduction The announcement by the government of plans to amend the Constitution towards the end of 2019 was disappointing but not surprising. After ZANU PF won a super-majority (two-thirds of the seats) in Parliament, the question was when not if it would make a move to amend the constitution. A two-thirds majority is the threshold required to amend the constitution. This is why before the 2018 elections, I argued that whatever happened, the losing parties must avoid handi

This week, the Parliament of Zimbabwe released a schedule on the holding of public hearings for the proposed amendments to the constitution starting on the 15th of June 2020 in some parts of the country. The public hearings despite that the country is currently in a lockdown due to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic with restrictions such as social distancing, a limit of 50 people per gathering to mention but just a few. Despite all these challenges, the Mnangagwa administration se